Gitanas Nauseda, Lithuania’s president, at a European Council meeting in Brussels, Belgium, on Thursday, June 18, 2026.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda on Thursday said the Baltic country’s top political leaders had agreed that a constitutional ban on the domestic deployment of nuclear weapons should be removed.
The decision comes shortly after lawmakers in Finland, another NATO member that shares a border with Russia, voted to lift its longstanding ban on nuclear weapons.
Speaking to reporters shortly after the decision, Nauseda said Article 137 of Lithuania’s constitution had become “outdated” and “obsolete,” according to a report from state broadcaster LRT.
He added that parliamentary and government leaders were “practically unanimous” in their support for removing the policy — as opposed to amending it — and that it would have been “truly unfortunate” if Lithuania had become the weak link within NATO.
Lithuania’s Article 137 had explicitly prohibited the deployment of weapons of mass destruction and the establishment of foreign military bases on Lithuanian territory.
“The geopolitical situation is getting worse. Our constitution was written when geopolitical circumstances were totally different,” Nauseda said, according to Reuters.
The removal of the provision means Vilnius can adapt to evolving security circumstances in the future, Nauseda said. He added, however, that there were no immediate plans to store nuclear weapons in the country.
Lithuania, which borders the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, has been one of Ukraine’s staunchest allies during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s more than four-year conflict with Kyiv, providing extensive military equipment and financial support.
